


Falling through Time

by Zilent_Rush



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Amity loves her wife past and future, Aunt Emira, Birthing Ritual cuz they're magic lmao, Enemies to Friends, Eventual Fluff, F/F, Family Dynamics, Friends to Lovers, Future Fic, How Do I Tag, Jealous Amity Blight, Light Angst, Maria Noceda-Blight Childhood, Oblivious Luz Noceda, Post-Episode: s01e19 Young Blood Old Souls, Some misunderstanding, Time Travel, Uncle Edric, Why does Maria almost look like her, good mothers, lost of memory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:14:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29979969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zilent_Rush/pseuds/Zilent_Rush
Summary: After a tragic accident, Maria found herself at the outskirts of Hexside. Fatigued after her arrival, she took her time walking to one of the empty benches at the school's courtyard. “Everyone seems to still be in their classes”She rested on one of the cozy wooden seats. She faintly remembered what happened, a flash of a purple portal, a yellow beam that rayed her eyes, the heavy headache she's having, everything came out fuzzy as she tried to think of the previous events.The bell screamed her to wake. Her shock intensified, as her eyes followed the flood of unfamiliar students that were coming out of the gates. Her view finally settled on the person wearing a multi-track uniform. “No, it couldn’t be? Mami?!”.Amity is not that fond of Maria
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Emira Blight/Viney
Comments: 18
Kudos: 72





	1. The Girl and The Twins

**Author's Note:**

> The Art that started it all go show this person some love.  
> Art of Maria: https://twitter.com/Aweirdlatina/status/1317503202905018368  
> The story began forming in my head the moment I saw this, and I just had to write it down.

It was all too fast. She wasn’t aware of the light beam trying to hit her, she wasn’t aware of how strong it was. The magic of the beam pushed her hard as she tried to resist it with her hands, the heels of her feet were marking the ground trying to match its force. She lost her balance, the impact too strong, the ray hit her chest. The heavy blow made her fly. Flying was fun of course, but when you're not riding on a staff, it becomes terrifying. The direction of the flight made it clear that the ray was aimed to push her through a purple portal. She maneuvered her legs again, her feet caught the ground before she could go through. The yellow beam finally dissipated, so did her breath, but the yellow beam dissipated.

She was catching her breath. Not closing her eyes was a bad idea, the beam blurred out most of her vision and all she could see were blobs of colors. The colors that stood out to her the most were yellow and purple. She looked around her surroundings to see if her vision would clear a little, whilst trying to think of possibilities on what to do. She tried rationalizing her thoughts but an unexpected second yellow beam advanced in her direction, she closed her eyelids this time though, protecting her vision from the blaring light. 

The strength of the beam was more powerful than the first one, it struck her head. She felt a sharp pain there despite the lack of a physical pierce. She went flying again, her hands trembled trying to reach out onto something to pull her back but all she could catch was thin air. The portal shrank into nothing when she went through.

Her face fell first to the ground. The pain and shock that hit her head made her pass out cold on top of stony pavements.

After a few moments, she gained some of her consciousness. Maria’s eyes opened and followed the stony pavements that seemed to be leading to... 

“Hexside”, she muttered while cleaning some dirt off her face.  
The outskirts of Hexside, the portal sent her to the outskirts of Hexside. The school proudly stood tall right in front of her, hallways surprisingly quiet. The silence told her that the students were still in their respected classrooms.

She was still Fatigued and discombobulated from her arrival. The beam left a pretty sharp pain still prevalent in her head. Looking around she found some empty benches in the school's courtyard. She took her time walking to one of them.

“Everyone seems to still be in their classes, I wonder how long till they finish”, she said to herself. She finally made her way to lay down on one of the cozy wooden seats. The courtyard was far enough from the school, so the small occasional murmurings that leaked out of the classrooms wouldn't be heard. Maria faintly remembers what had happened, everything came out fuzzy when she tried to think of the previous events.

Every time she thought about it she was reminded of the pain in her head. She was still tired and worn out. Her eyelids began to feel heavy. “Another day in the life of Maria, I just hope principal Bump will buy another _Pollinus_ Flu excuse.” she said before drifting off into another slumber.

After some time, the screaming bell got her to wake up from the short rest. The noise made her head jolt up to face the school. The remaining shock she felt from the bell seemed to intensify. Her eyes following the flood of unfamiliar faces that were coming out of the front gates.

Her eyes settled on one person, with just one glimpse of the multi-track uniform, her vision was locked on to that person, ignoring the sea of other students. She squinted her opticals, as to see if that would blur out her vision less, The colorful-uniformed student smiled brightly as waved intensely when she spotted one of her friends: a girl that had turquoise-blue hair that seemed to belong to the plant magic track. 

All too familiar from the multiple nights of looking at the family photo albums, the thoughts that were supposedly hitting her like little droplets of rain have now flooded her. “No, it couldn’t be? Mami?!”.

Maria’s brain fuzzed, she was still processing information about the previous events, and now this? The baffled Maria was unaware of the two tall figures looking at her, behind the west wing wall of the stadium. The little brunette witch was still drunk with confusion on how the heck does her mom look so young.

She got out of her phase when she felt a heavy breath tickling down her neck. A shiver went across her spine when she turned around to see a demonic fluffy bunny with piercing red eyes sitting across the bench she was laying. The bloody-red eyes were glued on her, and the mouth of the creature had a big resemblance to a drooling rabid-Slitherbeast, It drooled like crazy. The pink fluffy bunny smiled maniacally, flashing it’s giant fangs.

“Oh god, you look dangerous”, she said fearfully.

The creature’s feet were getting ready to flip the entire bench, as it's hoppers started to stretch up and down at the flat willow wood.

The half-witch’s face paled, as she yelped. She hopped half of her body with the remaining strength she had to the end of the bench holding the edge of the backrest for support. The giant bunny smirked and hopped high, aiming for the other end of the bench. Mari a’s eyes closed, expecting herself to fly in the air again. But instead of being launched several feet high up the ground, she was met with a poof sound. 

The bunny completely disappeared as blue clouds of dust seemed to replace its place. There were sounds of laughter echoing from behind the east wing of the stadium. 

“Oh my god hahaha, you should have seen your face, right Em?”, Edric said. The twins both revealed themselves from the west wing while moving into Maria’s vision.

“Edric, that was a bit too much don’t you think? I mean look at the poor thing”, Emira said, playfully smiling almost displaying a hint of concern in her eyes. '' Oh common Em, I mean it’s common knowledge that the transferee must be initiated one way or another it's tradition”, Edric said nudging his sister, also giving Maria a playful wink. They moved towards the slightly traumatized girl, They both looked at her up and down analyzing the girl's clothing.

Maria let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She stood up from the chair as Emira offered her a hand. Maria took the hand and smiled at the green haired witch. As she stood, she started swatting away the dust that culminated from her uniform she didn't know she was wearing.

Her casual wear usually consisted of a long sleeved black shirt with a gray lace at the belt of her waist, she paired it with matching purple leggings. But alas she was wearing her Hexside uniform, not casuals.

“Hmm, maybe that could be a clue for later.” she thought.

The idea of a horrific event happening in school that makes everyone of her family members years younger played through her head, that might be one of the reasons why she was still wearing her uniform. But then that would be unlikely. Her other thought is that there might be a tampering of time magic. She was still skeptical on who could do those types of spells since time magic is known as one of the dark arts. As she thought of more possible theories, her mind went wheezy as her head suddenly banged; a sharp pain followed. She suddenly forgot how to stand.

“Woah there, easy; i didn't know that scaring you would cause walking damage”, Emira snickered while catching the girl’s wrists, to make sure that she has support if her feet forget how to stand again. 

She was reminded of how weak she was from the blast. Her legs wobbled a little. Thinking about heavy thoughts right now is gonna prove itself more difficult, as she just confirmed thinking too much makes her forget how to stand. She sighed, Emira let go of the girl’s wrist when the brunette gave her an assuring smile telling the older witch that she could support herself now.

She fixed herself again. One thing that didn’t change about her style was that she always wore her hair up in a high wild pony tail. The scrunchy she wore was from her Aunt that was standing right infront of her, but she didn't need to know that.

“Soooooo. Where yah from?” Edric asked, intonating his words. He gave Maria a friendly nudge on the shoulder. She gulped, telling him who she really is might be a bad idea. 

Her thoughts were all so boozled, that she wasn't sure if the truth was the right thing to say at this moment. So she looked up at the sky instead of her uncle, searching for words that might magically appear to give her some sorta answer. She finally settled on something.“ Obviously around here, I mean why else would I be in Hexide?, hehe”, the girl giggled nervously.

Edric, not all that convinced, examined her and her uniform. “You're a multi-tracker?”, he said, lips straight but eyes still squinting as he inspected her more.

Maria didn’t know how to respond, since she didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing that the twins are aware of her existing in this timeline, but then again she didn’t start fading so that at least would be a good sign, right? 

She really needed to figure out how this time magic worked, or she might work herself up too much about the possibility of interacting with anything in this timeline would make her disappear from existence like that bunny did.

She was snapped from her thoughts as she saw Edric move closer to his sister. He lent down his head, not removing the eye-contact he had on his sibling, “You think she could ask Viney about what kinda feeds does puddles likes?” he said while wiggling his eyebrows. A tint of pink dusted Emira’s cheeks, her face fumed at her brother both from embarrassment and anger.

“She’s not even in the beastkeeping track Edric '', Emira barked at her brother, "besides judging from the uniform, she looks like she's from potions and abominations'. “So that's what the yellow means, I thought it was alchemy”. He stood up, “well after all this bantering you probably know what our names are, I’m Edric Blight and this is my twin sister Emira '', he pointed at his sister. He smiled at the shorter girl, giving her a look that there was nothing to fear anymore. Maria smiled back nervously. He played a question whilst looking at her.

“What's your name?”

“ Maria. Maria Bl-” She stopped herself at her last name, They can’t just know her last name yet, although she fully trusts her uncle and aunt in her timeline, she didn’t know how they would react in this one. Plus they might think she's crazy if she told them she was their niece.

“Maria, just Maria”, she said nervously, scratching an invisible itch behind her head.  
“ I just transferred here today, but I was super late when I arrived at campus, so I didn’t know which classrooms to enter.” Her eyes eyeing her mother about to leave through the gates with what seems to be her Aunt Willow and Uncle Gus.

“What happened to your face though, It looks like you've been beaten up?”, Edric asked worriedly as he might have done too much to damage the girl's day.

“Oh that? One of the baby Griffons from the beastkeeping stables escaped, so I helped the little guy out, she was a playful fellow that's for sure”, Maria flashing a small smile for the Blight siblings. Edric nudges his sister at the mention of beast keeping.

Maria spotted the older girl's annoyed expression, Emira whisper yelled at her brother, “Anymore out of you, and i swear you won't see the next light of tomorrow”. 

Seeing the act, a chuckle started to escape out of Maria's mouth, “some things don't change huh?” She thought to herself looking at the two. The siblings looked back at her, confused as to why the shy and nervous girl of before was starting to giggle.

Before the twins could deploy another personal question. A girl with aquamarine hair started to make her way through the courtyard yelling.

“Emira! Edric! There you are”, Amity's voice erupted behind her siblings. The pair looked back to look at their younger sister. The younger witch was panting, probably from walking around the school looking for them.

“Oh hey Mittens we were just talking to Mary, a new transferee here”, Edric pointed his thumb behind his back towards the direction of which he last saw Maria.

“Is this another one of your pranks? She asks between breaths. There's literally no one there.” Amity pointed out.

Both of the siblings looked behind their backs looking at the spot where Maria once was. Both of them were looking at nothing.

“These Multi-track students are sure to be quick on their feet,” Emira commented.

They made their way to the panting girl, giving her a pat in the back.

“Anyway Whatya up to Mittens?” The siblings both patted Amity’s head.  
Amity rolled her eyes, “ Let’s just go already, I promised Luz that I’d be at the library when she finishes her potion errands from the owl lady”.

Her siblings gave her a knowing look, expecting their little sister to flash a shade of pink when mentioning the human’s name. Edric was about to draw a spell circle to summon an illusion of the human, but was cut off by his sister’s threat.

”Another word or spell, and I’ll make you both practice targets for next season’s grudgby ”. Amity warned.

“Alright, alright, we won’t make you late on your date Mittens”, Edric flashed a smile towards her before looking at Emira. Amity blushed at the statement.

“Beside Mittens, you're not the only one with a hopeless crush on a multi-tracker”, Edric added.  
Before he knew it, he was being chased around the outskirts of the campus by a fuming Amity and Emira.


	2. Trouble in the Marketplace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote Maria to have Amity’s demeanor, but her quirks and confidence definitely comes from Luz. She's really confident in the things she's good at and as for her nervousness I’ll put the reasons in future chapters. I don’t know if any of this makes sense but I swear in my head it does.
> 
> Oh and about Maria being in the abominations and potions track, I’ll think you’ll see why she chose those two in future Chapters. Alright chapter 2, let’s go

She bolted. The moment the twins turned their backs to see Amity, she bolted.

“That was mom, OH MY GOD that was mom”, she yelled under her breath while sprinting.

Her feet taking her into an unknown direction. The same feet died on her a few moments ago, now brought back to life by just the sight of her mother.

Knowing how smart her mother is in the future, she feared that the young girl might figure out who she is just by looking at her. “Heh, mom is smart like that” She said in between jogs.

She reached a rocky pathway, hearing the gravel crunching down her steps, she slowed down to walk.

She felt another heavy weight in her head again, she tried to smoosh the pressure points of her skull in between her hands. She was hoping it might ease the dizziness a little, but she ended up feeling another bang. “Ugh, this headache is impossible”, her legs wobbled a little from the sudden fuzziness. 

If she were in her timeline, it would be so much easier. These would be one of the moments where she'd ask her Moms' for advice on what to do. But right now, she couldn’t do that, she wasn’t sure them knowing might have good or terrible consequences.

“I need to get this headache in check before anything else”. She said, unknowingly approaching the entrance of the Marketplace. Gravel now being replaced with stony-cemented pavements.

These situations always bloomed into fun misadventures with her friends. And if her moms weren't there to help, she could always count on her Grandma Eda for some advice. The Owl Lady’s methods of dealing with conflict proved itself to be more chaotic than her mothers'. But to some miraculous extent, her methods work.

As Maria kept walking whilst attempting to think. She paid no attention to her surroundings whatsoever. She didn't even notice the groups of strangers avoiding her and the pathway she was walking in. And because of that she didn’t notice the fast Latina approaching her general direction, riding an owl staff with a bag full of potions behind her.

“Look out!” Luz yelled at the bystander as she tried to get Owlbert to fly higher, pulling the front of the staff upwards, only to figure out that it made her go faster than higher.

Before Maria could react to the yell, she was met with her mother’s foot, hitting her forehead. The force made her fall back at the ground. And she was met with another heavy head pain.

“Just to think this day couldn’t get any worse” Maria cried into the sky, swearing that she was starting to see stars in mid afternoon.

“You can say that again”

The voice caught Maria’s attention.

“Sorry about that, I’m a little rusty at flying”, Luz held her hand out so Maria could grab it.

Maria was skeptical at first but took the hand anyway. The pain in her head was washing away any panic she was feeling right now.

After giving the girl a hand to stand up, Luz examined her uniform. Despite being covered with a light layer of dirt after the fall, she notices that she's a hexside student, a multi-tracker just like her, the weird thing was, she has never met her before. She was pretty sure she could name everyone from the detention track. But hey if this is a new student, she's more than happy to show her the ropes of Hexside if she’d ever ask.

Luz instantly flashed a smile. “No way, you're a multi-tracker too, that's so cool”, she said excitedly. Looking at the uniform she notes that the girl was in the abominations and potions track from the yellow and magenta color she wore.

Maria, after being hit more times than she’d like in one day, finally settled on the first task she wanted to do. It made it clear from the heavy banging in her head that she needed to address her headache: _ immediately _ . She needs to ease the pain first, if she ever wanted to make any coherent thoughts. She swears that if she takes any more hits, she'll start forgetting how to breath.

Luz notices the girl's pained expression. "Hey, do you need help? It looks like I've caused more damage than the usual." , she nervously laughs while staring at her shoulder where Owlbert was, as if it would ease the tension she's made.

Golden eyes met brown, as the freshly hit witch gave her mother an assuring look, before stuttering out some words.

"Oh, don’t worry about it” she gave her a friendly smile. “But do you by any chance have some wartreeds, glistening carrots and fairy powder?" , she remembered the ingredients for the healing potion at the back of her head. She was proud of being the top student in the potions track, despite the usual stereotype that the potions track was very boring, but what most people didn’t know is with a little creativity there is a lot of potential on what potions could do. Repressing big curses is one of them.

The haziness in her head was still there, but finally deciding on what to do first before having anymore brainstorming kept her from having anymore sharp pains like before.

Luz is impressed by her remark, she pressed her thumb right against her chin, thinking. Although Luz herself studied all the tracks she didn't take the extra step to look that deep into any of them, she didn't have the time to dwell in the history or origins of each track, she only attended the parts of the track that involved the use and practicality of the magic. Plus all of the basics are new to her. So anything mentioned that's not in the human realm, she found interesting.

Maria cleared her throat, fear finally showed itself. She worries that she might be asking too much from her mom. When she thought about it, she was just a new student: a stranger nonetheless, not her mom nor her friend... yet, maybe...

Luz spoke before the girl could start panicking. "Hmm, I don't know if I have any of those ingredients, sorry" she said while removing her hand from her chin, now putting it at the back of her head to give a more apologetic look. "But... I bet Eda knows, so how about I'll give you a ride and maybe we could work in helping you find those ingredients. I still feel the need to repay you for my  _ accidents _ " she said emphasizing the last word.

Owlbert went back to his place on top of the staff. Luz was about to gesture Maria to sit right behind her. But Maria was uneasy about the fact that she was driving. She doesn't blame her though, after all she was the one who kicked her face with force that could have caused a concussion. She was thankful that she didn't knock her out conscience, it would be more troublesome flying with an unconscious body.

Maria finally spoke, 

"Why don't I fly us, and you point which way we should go".

Luz was very skeptical about letting this stranger drive Owlbert. But then again the girl didn't seem to have any ill feelings towards her despite being kicked in the face. In a normal setting she would have gotten a scolding, and some might call the authorities on her. Despite the bounty on her and the Owl lady now cleared after the palace incident, causing more chaos after those events would just get her another bounty. And she doesn’t want that right now. 

"You know how to fly?", Luz asked, looking at brunette.

"Yeah, my mom and mami taught me how to. Mami mostly, she was so enthusiastic teaching me and when I finally got the hang of the balancing and such, she got so happy that she made a whole feast for dinner.", Maria smiles at the memory, she was shortly snapped out of her thoughts when she saw a hint of sadness in her mother’s eyes. She didn’t know what she said wrong, but before she could ask about it, Luz had already started speaking.

"Alright then", Luz scooched over to make room for Maria at the front of the staff near where Owlbert was. " I trust you" , Luz reassured her.

She climbed up the staff, her head was still pounding but she just went through the pain, new strength and determination reawakened, built by the settled task and the girl behind her. Her mami's presence always gave her a sense of security, and hearing that she trusts her to fly Owlbert despite the awkward first interaction made her more confident about her flying.

Luz navigated Maria, pointing at the last corner she needed to turn to. Maria slowed down the staff once they rounded it, slowly revealing the infamous owl shack filled with trinkets from the other realm. The Owl Lady was there trying to impress customers with a blender. Telling them that they will never have the need to stir stuff in a cauldron anymore as the blender can mix stuff through the bottom: with just one press on a button, no spells needed, and no stirring spoons to clean either.

Okay, Eda didn't know what it was before Luz told her, she was about to throw it at the lame pile, but after seeing the blades rotate for the first time, seeing it mix the appleblood with carrot livers, she instantly knew she would make mad bucks if she promoted this. 

A tavern demon offered her 350 snails. A smile forms in Eda's lips as she shakes the demon's hand. "Deal". The demon gave Eda the money and went on his merry way blender in hand.

At the corner of her eye Eda spotted the two witchlings climbing off of Owlbert. The girl with Luz was the one driving, she has never seen her with Luz before, she's kinda worried about the thought that Luz would let random people drive Owlbert. But then again this is Luz she trusted her judgement, well kinda. “The kid’s weird sometimes heh, I wonder if she gets that from me”, she thought to herself.

The two now approached the front of the stand. "Hi Eda", Luz greeted her mentor.

"Luz I thought you still have potions to deliver with Owlbert, I mean it is a hefty pile. I thought you'd be back late noon", Eda commented.

"Well you see…" Luz looking at her companion's direction. "Psttt. What's your name again?" Luz says in a hush whisper.

Maria rolled her eyes while smiling, her own mother forgetting to ask her name, the name she gave her. It's still crazy to her that she knew nothing about her own kid. Maria sighed and whispered back.

"Maria, my name's Maria".

"Maria here got hit in the head by my foot while I was flying Owlbert '', she told Eda while wildly moving her hands, her left arm stretched out upwards to move slowly down. "And then bam I sent her flying backwards"

She clenched her left hand into a fist hitting her open right to emphasize the bam remark.

Maria giggled at her mother's overly dramatized motions. Some things never change.

"Anyways, I think I might have hit her head a little too hard, so she could use a little help, I mean I am the one who soccer kicked her."

"What's soccer?" Eda and Maria both ask in unison. After that accord, both witches turn to look at each other. Maria is already used to what her grandmother looks like. So seeing the Owl Lady doesn’t get her surprised, she didn’t care about the woman being an ex-criminal. She didn't look that much particularly different in the future anyways. She still looked as wild as ever despite the time difference she thought to herself. What bothered Maria though was the way that Eda's eyes narrowed at her, inspecting the girl up and down. Maria felt something stuck on her throat , but what made her swallow that something was Eda was looking at her and Luz. 

Luz was still rambling about what soccer was, too immersed on explaining to notice her mentor's eyes looking back and forth at Maria and her. The Owl lady's face was trying to connect the invisible dots between them, her expression changed like something clicked in her mind, she gave Maria a quick smirk, that made Maria swallow the lump in her throat.

She was about to say something but Luz interjected before she could get out any words.

"I think she was asking for some ingredients for her headache or something"

“I could just give you a ready made potion for that you know” Eda said looking at Luz and then to Maria. “But, how are you planning to pay me kid?” Eda raised a brow.

“I could help Luz finish the deliveries” she pointed at the sac filled with potions behind her. “Besides, it looks like I'm more capable of flying Owlbert than mam-Luz”, she coughed at her little slip-up.

“Not that you don’t know how to fly or anything”, Maria looked at her mom giving her a soft smile, “ I think it's impressive that you know how to fly fast without falling off the staff”, her eyes now returned to Eda with a determined look.

Eda thought about it for a while, scratching her chin. After a few thoughts, she gave them both a nod. Eda went under her table to open a stash right in front of them. She brought her hand inside the chest finally pulling out a red glowing potion.

“If you're wondering about the red color kid, its because I substituted the glistening carrots with-”

“Glistening apples, should work just as well for headaches right?” Maria added.

The Owl lady beamed a smile and gave the young girl the potion, Maria happily accepted it. She drank the whole thing, leaving her hands carrying nothing but an empty vile. The headache was now gone. She could finally think again. 

“Thank y--”

“Watch each other's backs now. yada-yada-yada”, she said, pushing both of them towards Owlbert’s direction. “I’ve got blenders to sell”, she admitted. Eda gestured to the two of them to start getting on Owlbert. She moved back to her stand putting something inside her pocket. “Oh and Owlbert, keep them outta trouble”, Eda added before turning her back getting another blender under one of the crates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm what did Eda put inside her pocket? Anyways Chapter three might be posted a little longer, I wanna make sure the quality is great before posting. English isn’t my first language but hey writing this might make me good at it.
> 
> And as for the headaches in this chapter, I remember having one, it got so severe that I needed my brother to help me walk the health center cuz my legs forgot how to xD . Thank the stars it's gone though, writing headaches gets boring. Hope you enjoyed this chapter regardless! and that's the end of my ted talk.


	3. Not so Friendly Faces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, I underestimated how long chapter 3 was gonna be, so I separated it. I’ll be writing in someone else’s POV after Chapter 4 or maybe chapter 5? Amity's POV preferable. Our aquamarine-haired witch is still waiting at the Library.

"So uhhh you come here often?" Luz asked behind the staff, she's been trying to start a conversation that would hit, but Maria has been conservative with her answers, she was starting to think that she made Maria more uncomfortable than usual. She was starting to worry.

Maria was still silent, she was still busy looking around the marketplace of Bonesborough, navigating through the streets. There were no shops in places that there would be shops in the future. There were less houses in these streets than what she usually remembered, but she can't tell the girl behind her that. The brown-eyed brunette would start building suspicion. Oh how she’d wish her situation were easier.

"Not that often", She answered.

Silence fell upon the two teens once again. Maria didn't want to be the one always closing the conversation, the atmosphere becomes too weird and too awkward, it's actually quite unpleasant. She didn’t like it being that way, so she conjured upon some courage and started to speak, making the conversation continue.

"I'm gonna level with you right now, although I got the hang of flying at a young age, I'm not that great at directions," she hummed a little after replying as they exited Bonesborough, crossing over it’s border. The memories of how she got lost at  _ The Knee _ were both good and awful memories for sure.

"My Mom had an entire search party looking for me one time, she was so worried". She notices Luz clenching tighter at the staff. "I thought she would be mad. I did make her leave work, but she ended up hugging me when they did find me." She looked over at Luz to see if the girl still feels uneasy. Luz seemed to have loosen her tight grip on the staff, Maria looked back at the road and continued the story. "After that she took overtime just so she could be free over the weekends. She spent that free time teaching me orienteering at “ _ The Shoulder _ ”.

"Turn left to that dirtway", Luz pointed, she found the story a bit overwhelming at first, due to the recent events at the emperor’s palace and the portal to her realm, she still was sensitive about any talk that involved mothers, but the story Maria told was sweet, she couldn't help but smile a little.

Maria looked at her back again to catch a short glance, she was thankful that the awkward atmosphere loosened up a bit and judging by the soft smile Luz was showing, the girl was heartwarmed by the story. It sorta slipped through her head, she didn’t think that the timeline she was in: was the timeline Luz lost her way back to  _ abuela _ . These are the days that her Mami was still sensitive about the recent events, her grandma’s rescue, her Mami’s loss. To Maria, the events happened several years ago, the story only existing in old magic ball playbacks and ruffed up newspaper clippings.

She could have been more careful with her words. she's afraid that it might not only change some parts of this timeline, but she might also accidentally hurt her Mami, and she didn’t want that. But sometimes she can't help blurting out the first thing that comes to her mind. " huh, I wonder where I got that from'', she thinks while she and Luz navigate through the outskirts of Bonesborough.

\-------------------------------------------------------

It was now late noon, the majority of it was spent on traveling to different neighborhoods outside and inside of Bonesborough. They were about to deliver the last order of potions, the order being at a centuries-old portentous castle. Slowly getting off of Owlbert, they were now standing in front of the castle. There was no moat though, only brick walls surrounding the main building, the front gates made of steel, the ends above the steel gates were pointed.

"I've never seen this part of town before", Maria said while handing Owlbert back to Luz as the girls were about to drop off the final potions for their last customer. "Wizards love to be in areas farther from town, at least that's what Eda tells me." Luz said, putting Owlbert behind her back. Boths girls started approaching the gate.

Maria now examines the castle through the grates of the gate. The area looks pretty empty, despite the vegetation growing beautifully by the sides of the castle. There were no sounds emitting from the area near the building, it was so quiet that if it would have been a few more hectares away from town there's a chance that you might be able to hear your own bile sac pumping.

Maria sees a light coming from one of the windows. It confirmed to her that there were people still inside, probably the customer waiting for the potions. She has no idea why the person needs such a big place if said person is alone. There's really only one light emitting from the castle. A castle this big would be a huge hassle to clean, she didn’t really get these wizards.

The gates, although tall and reinforced, were also surprisingly easy to open.The two made their way to the front doors of the main building, “Should we try and knock?” Luz asked as she turned to Maria for an answer.

“I'm gonna be honest with you, I’m not sure, something about this place seems offsetting”, Maria felt a chill starting at her spine. “But we don't have a choice, do we?” Maria asked. Luz gave a soft smile,” Don’t worry about it Mary, believe me when I say hits, I’ve been in much scarier castles”. Luz pointed her thumb towards herself, her face turning smug as she looked at Maria with great confidence.

“Sure you were”, Maria said in a playful tone. Luz just smiled at her remark, “You talk, I'll knock”, Maria said as they started approaching the reinforced wooden doors. Maria knocked on the wooden thing three times, only to get no answer. The door slowly swung open halfway, letting a chill breeze go out of the castle. Luz popped her head to see the person on the other side, but to their surprise: there was no one there.

They looked at each other's expressions just so that they could confirm what they saw wasn't a hallucination. Judging by the faces they were both giving, they both saw the same thing. They nodded at each other, salvaging a bit of courage before both girls started going through the door, entering the empty corridor. 

The castle was now lit up, to their bewilderment all the torches were afire. “Okay now this is just creepy, what did this guy want anyway?” Maria looked at Luz for an answer. Luz took out the pouch at the side of her hip. She opened it and grabbed the potions that were inside, “huh, it looks like a suppressant potion, and the other one is for hunger”.

“Ingredients?” Maria questioned.

“I don’t really know what to tell you, Eda doesn't really label her potions all that often. Why'd you ask anyways?” Luz looked puzzled. They were walking slowly while also checking the rooms that had their doors opened, to see if the person that let them in was there.

“Well, I think our little incident at the marketplace delayed your deliveries, sorry about that by the way.” Maria rubbed the back of her neck. She hasn't been here a whole day but she's already causing shenanigans in this timeline. “And since you have suppressants we don’t know if the person we’re delivering to wants to suppress sleep or a curse, and if it’s a curse I really don’t want this person to be hungry”, she added.

“Hey, don’t worry about the marketplace, it's my fault I kicked you... in the face”, Luz coughed a little. “And besides with the speed I was going at, I was probably gonna hit another person. I’m just glad I didn’t gain another bounty”, she said as she gave Mary an apologetic look. “I was lucky enough not to hit a demon or a member of the emperor’s coven, thanks for forgiving me and the flying tips, now I know what to work on”. 

The two fell silent as they walked at the end of the corridor. Maria didn’t have that much conversation to share, she didn't want to risk changing too much in this timeline, in fear that it might affect her in the future. But she was lucky that the silence formed was comfortable.

The duo climb the staircase leading to the second floor of the castle. Almost all the rooms on the bottom corridor were empty and closed, so there wasn’t really a point in circling around. They were met with another long hallway, the torches were still afire they noticed. The two started walking through it, inspecting the rooms again. The inspection shared many similarities to the first floor’s.

Well until a noise erruptured through the hallway, a sudden creek from one of the rooms caught their attention. A door slowly opened, not enough to see what the otherside of the room was but enough for a small band of light to peek through it. The two were about to knock and approach the slightly opened door, and maybe barge in to deliver the package. But Maria stopped Luz’s tracks towards the door. 

She halted Luz’s movement by placing a hand right in front of her. Luz was confused by the behavior, until she saw what Maria was actually doing. Mary’s ears slightly raised, she was trying to decipher the noises of the room beyond the door. Maria picked up subtle sizzling noises, the more she listened the more she could here someone was boiling something too.

“What’s the hold up Mary?” Luz asked in a whispery voice, acknowledging that Maria had better hearing than her.

“I think the door leads into the kitchen, but I don’t know, something about this whole place feels off”, the girl answered anxiously.

“Well I guess I'm the one knocking this time”, Luz said. Judging from their interactions, she thought the girl was the type to easily be scared and anxious. Although she would lighten up when talking about her mothers, Luz still picks up this uneasy atmosphere when she tries to spark a conversation. Luz needed to be the brave one in this situation, she wanted to be.

Before her hand could land on the door knob, Maria had grabbed it. She held her mother’s hand whilst saying, “Give me the potions first, and if my gut is right we might have an extremely hungry customer on the other side of this door.”

“Alright then, when I said I trust you, I’ll trust you”, Luz grabbed her pouch and pulled out the potions to hand it to her friend. Maria let go of Luz’s hand while receiving the potions, she stepped back from the door just a little, in the case if her gut feeling was right. She wasn't comfortable with the idea of letting her Mami possibly get eaten by the hungry customer, but it was her best chance to protect both of them. 

She knows how capable her mom is with Owlbert, but casting a spell with a staff and casting a spell with your hands are two different things. If she can't get her hands on Owlbert fast enough she can't cast spells before she's detained. Maria had a plan for this, it would avoid the two of them from possibly getting hurt. 

Maria nodded at her Mami. Signalling Luz that it's okay to knock now. Luz knocked three times, and waited for a moment. There seems to be a lack of response from the otherside, they waited a few moments more while also checking if there are any changes in the sounds coming from the room.

_ Nothing _ , growing impatient, Luz opened the door and peered her head inside.

"No one seems to be here”, Luz looked back to catch Maria’s glance, she was waiting for a nod or a gesture: if it was okay for her to go inside. The girl seemed to be puzzled more than anything. Luz took the initiative and opened the door wide before leaping inside. She closed her eyes expecting something to charge at her yet she was only met with nothing. 

She opened one of her peepers, and looked around the kitchen. It was surprisingly more neat than what she was expecting, well compared to the Owl house of course. She looked around checking if the customer was just surprisingly small, and she just barged in without the person’s okay.

Looking through the kitchen’s floor and countertops nothing seemed to be out of order. There was a line of silverware in one of the marbled tables near the door. The boiling and sizzling noises stopped when she entered the room. Now she knew why Mary’s gut felt this way. The oddity felt too weird, not the good kind of weird but the kind bad kind where it makes you puke out ghostworms instead of rainbows.

“Uhh, Mary’s I think you wanna come inside to look at this”, Luz checked back at Mary, the witchiling was still puzzled by the weird conundrum.

“Any luck?” Maria said while stepping inside the kitchen going to the opposite side of the marbled table.

“Not at all, the sizzling stopped when I went inside. I was expecting to be charged at, like you said there may be a chance of a hungry monster but…”, she looked around the room again to make sure she didn't miss anything. “ I don’t see anything out of its place, what bugs me is that it's too normal. I mean there's arranged silverware right here, and there's hot tea on the other countertop, the plate cabinets are-”

“Hot tea?”, Maria interjected, eyes on Luz then at the otherside of the room where the countertop was. “Someone was just here then” she whispered. She moved to the side where Luz was, there were no pans or kettles in the dishwasher. She was starting to see that there might be more than one person living here if they could clean-up this fast. 

The windows of the castle were closed and judging by the layer of dust at the window, no one had mingled to open or clean the thing. Unaware her surroundings, plates were starting to fall, aiming for a spot on her head. Before she could act, her butt and back were met with the floor.

“Don’t want you to get another headache now, hehe”, Luz had pushed her before the whole cabinet of plates could have knocked her out again. She looked at the plates that had fallen, before Luz helped her up. When she stood, the silverware that was on the marble disappeared. Suddenly things started to click in her mind, well aware now of the reason why there were no signs of any wizard, witch or demon.

Maria grabbed Luz’s hand so they could both bolt outside of the Kitchen, running as fast as they could, but before they could leave their only exit flew shut, the reinforced door now closed. One of the drawers opened, spoons and forks stood up, aligning themselves to launch towards the two teenages. The silverware flew straight towards them, but before they could land a hit, Luz had already activated an ice glyph. The cutlery hit the ice, the rebound splayed them across the floor.

The sound of a burner turning on caught their attention. Apparently the stoves of this kitchen do not like ice that much, the fire roared, it started dancing making its way to slowly melt the ice Luz made whilst the silverware regrouped for another round of attack.

“Mary, uhhh any plans? Luz’s voice shaked a little. Fighting a demon is something that she had done before, but fighting animate objects where she couldn't see the spellcaster is another thing on its own. Maria quickly pulled herself together and drew a spell circle. She summoned an abomination arm smashing the regrouping silverware. 

The cutlery still seemed to have a mind of its own, it was still moving on its own accord despite being crushed and bent. On the lighter note these groups of silverware refused to start attacking if they weren't regrouped or in order. This gave them both some time.

“Mary, do you remember a window above this floor?”

“Yeah, why?” Maria asked.

“Let’s book it”, with that Luz took Maria’s hand and started storming towards the window. She summoned another ice glyph, shielding them both from the dancing flame of the stove. Her ice quickly melted from the extreme heat that was being expelled, but it bought them enough time to open the window. She grabbed Owlbert from behind her back.

“Hold tight, I’m gonna kick the window”, Luz said while booting the kitchen window open, making themselves another exit. They moved too fast for Maria’s liking, she lost balance when they leaped through the window.The wind was hugging her skin for a few milliseconds, before Luz’s hand reached out and grabbed her right wrist. Maria let out a breath she held.

“For someone who has weak nerd arms, you sure have strong grabbers”, Maria chuckled still in the air.

“I can’t exactly pull you up hehe,” Luz said nervously. “ uhhh Owlbert a little help buddy?”

Understanding the situation Owlbert lowered himself quickly, swinging Maria a little upwards so her hand could reach the end of the staff. It worked and Maria was able to pull herself up. They flew one floor above the kitchen and was met with another dusty window. Luz was about to melt it using her fire glyph but Maria stopped her before she could draw her spell circle. Instead Maria summoned a small abomination hand on the other side of the window to open the lock. The window opened and the two teens were able to enter the room.

Both Teens looked around. “Well this is just wow”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4 is already written but it might come out in a week or so, my school is finally catching up. And I also don’t wanna write badly. Hope you enjoyed this one though.

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea how this whole story will go, but I already wrote chapter 2 and 3. To think I'd put more effort in writing this over my school essays still baffles me. Anyways I'll update soon. [English isn't my first language so go easy on me]  
> If there are spelling errors just tell me


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